Hello all -
I thought I'd chime in here....
--- Karl Miller <lyaa071@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Which reminds me of those who attempt "historically informed" > performances...
I'm a professional oboist who specializes in period performance (with Tafelmusik, Boston Baroque, Handel&Haydn Soc and many others). I play copies of instruments from 1650-1805.
> yet,they are amongst the first to dismiss documents > like Nikisch and d'Albert performances of Beethoven.
Actually most of the people that I work with are fascinated with ALL performances from earlier times. I would say that the truly open-minded amongst us don't think that we have the "grail" at our personal disposal. In fact, last evening a colleague and I spent an hours listening to oboists from 1903-1953 (a 2 CD set that I engineered) and marvelled and lamented at the playing styles that have been lost in the last 50 years. We also were discussing recordings of the 20s by the Rosé Quartet and how wonderful they were.
It could be that the attitudes Karl noted existed early on in the HIP movement but I think by-and-large they don't now. I'm not saying that everyone I work with thinks this way, but most of the ones I know are fascinated by all historic performances. I think the days of the militant HIPsters and essentially gone but you can still find a few out there.
Well, you might say, why don't you play like that? Well that's another can of worms to be opened at a later time but it basically has to do with the instruments we play - essentially, you CAN'T play like that. The instruments won't let you. Oh, sure you can impose a different style on your instrument, but then what's the point of using the old instruments then? We need to let the instrument find its voice and then play it that way. When that happens you find yourself playing in a very different manner. Not "better" (or "worse"), just different.
> musicological > musician will dismiss the rubato of those performances as
Musicological musician?? :-) An oxymoron?? :-)
Cheers, Lani Spahr (who still loves a good portamento)
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